Alliance battleship Minerva
Minerva was an extensively modified Iapetus-class battleship that served in the Terran Alliance navy during the Third War in Heaven. As the flagship of Admiral Song Fen in the 14th Fleet, it saw action at the costly battle of Icrivis as well as during the battle of Vermilion. Design The design of the "modified Iapetus" (commonly referred to as the Minerva ''class) battleships came about as a direct result of experimentation with the possibility of mounting the extremely expensive but effective sensors and tactical arrays (including the CUTIE system, the '''C'ontinuously 'U'pdating 'T'actical 'I'mage 'E'xhibitor) of the Alliance fleet's supreme flagship Furious on a modern battleship hull. To these requirements were also added the possibility of mounting experimental engines and utilizing Furious's curved hull plating technology and an ablative coating of new design to drive the battleship faster than ever before whilst also offering the best protection. As these ships were intended to fight in the gunline, new artillery was also provided for: experimental 41cm laser cannons in fixed mountings, the largest artillery of their type yet produced in the Alliance, plus a 51cm boring laser of higher output than normal to slice through heavy opposition like butter through a knife. While not significantly larger than their parent class in the Iapetus type, being just fifty metres longer to account for the larger collimation chambers of their special high-output boring laser, the twin Minerva''s dispensed with the separate hull on the bottom of the vessel, including a large claw-shaped fin there instead which housed much of their sensor equipment as well as one of their hangar bays for receiving shuttles. They did not receive any increase in armour over the ''Iapetus type, but did receive the special curved armour plating used on the Furious type that made them much more similar to Consortium ships than to Alliance ships - analysis of Furious's protection had shown the flagship was less susceptible to damage than a Terra dreadnought at the new longer-range combat ships were expected to fight at, despite her vastly inferior quantities of armour. The propulsion system consisted of six experimental versions of the Class 9a-1 ion-impulse drive, which were arranged in a vertically elongated hexagon at the rear of the vessel to propel it at significantly higher speeds than previous battleships. Four cruiser-class engines using the same experimental technology were added as well, to give the ship superior maneuverability at sublight speeds - this allowed the Minerva''s to reposition quickly in response to crises in the fleet. However, finances and parliamentary opposition to expensive naval construction during a time of peace proved to be the undoing of the programme. Only ''Minerva and Euryale survived axing of the naval budget for 2511 and 2512: as the two ships closest to completion, it was felt that not to finish them would be more of a waste of funds than it would be to cancel them outright. Armament The Minerva-class battleships were armed with experimental cannons: the largest guns yet seen by the fleet, 41cm in calibre with a provisional designation of PC-5500 Exp.. Their upgraded Furious-type fire control system could handle static targets such as space stations and lunar defenses up to a full light-hour away, while starship-sized targets could be tracked and even theoretically engaged at 30-45 light-seconds. However, normal combat range for the opening stages of a battle was still 5-10 light-seconds, closing down to even the tiny range of a few hundred thousand kilometres per Alliance gunline doctrine. To this highly potent gun armament was added a smaller but still significant secondary battery of 203mm, 150mm, 105mm, and 20mm laser cannons as well as several banks of 50mm laser blasters and the Alliance's Aegis network for defense against missiles and torpedoes. History Early Service Third War in Heaven Battle of Icrivis Battle of Vermilion Decommissioning Category:Starships Category:Alliance Starships Category:Individual Starships Category:Terran Alliance Category:Star Dreadnoughts Category:Battleships Category:Flagships